Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid took time out from the pressures of politics today to get married.
His wedding to Brazilian-born fiancee Ms Carine Adler was a private family occasion which took place in central London but well away from the prying eye of the media.
The ceremony - Dr Reid is a Catholic and his bride has a Jewish background - was attended by around 70 family and close friends.
Dr Reid said tonight: "I am a very lucky man to have had Carine come into my life and agree to marry me.
"It's been a wonderful day that both of us and all of our family have really enjoyed."
But for the workaholic politician there is no time for a break. It is back to work on Monday, with the couple's honeymoon planned for later in the year.
It is almost a year since Dr Reid, 54, announced his intention to marry the woman who helped him get over the pain of the death from a heart attack of his first wife Cathie. She died in January 1998 at the age of 50, after they had been married for 29 years.
Both bride and groom's surviving parents, Dr Reid's mother, Mary, 82, and Ms Adler's mother, were present to give their blessing, said an aide.
Twice married Ms Adler, 53, was given away by her son Hal from her first marriage and Dr Reid's eldest son Kevin was his best man.
The bridesmaids were the partners of Hal and Dr Reid's younger son Mark and two of Ms Adler's nieces.
Despite being held in London it was a Scottish affair, in keeping with Dr Reid's Glaswegian upbringing.
The bride was piped into the ceremony by a lone piper and the Scottish theme continued at the reception with guests tucking into prime Scottish beef, more pipe music and dancing to a country and western band.
One guest described it as "a traditional Glasgow wedding".
After the death of Dr Reid's wife, the couple met at a barbecue in London and first appeared in public together at the Trooping the Colour in 1999.
The new Mrs Reid is a former actress and film director who has made films and documentaries for Channel 4 and written scripts for the BBC and the British Film Institute. She attracted brief notoriety with her acclaimed erotic art-house film Under the Skin, the story of a teenage girl who goes on an orgy of casual sex after the death of her mother.
Controversial or not - her sister is reported to have pronounced the film pornographic - it provided her with three awards, including Best British Film, at the Edinburgh Festival in 1997.
PA